If he touched Ariella, he might face that monster again. David, who instinctively sensed this, chewed on his long fingernails.
He couldn’t stand the frustration. He had suffered such humiliation, but he couldn’t repay it. He just had to silently endure it!
He was furious, but there was nowhere to vent it, so it just kept piling up.
Thus, he came to find someone to pour out his anger and resentment on instead.
“Why, is Lizzy making excuses to postpone sleeping with you? Oh, that’s right. You don’t actually think those excuses are real, do you? Lizzy doesn’t have even a grain of rice’s worth of affection for you. She’s just using you.”
Coincidentally, the story he had heard from Ariella that day greatly helped him choose his target.
The Bedford manor was as silent as a mountain in the late night.
The servants were enjoying a sweet slumber, their weary bodies laid on their small beds, and the guards, though standing in their designated spots, were either nodding off with their heads down or leaning against the wall to rest.
The fact that both the master of the house and his heir were away only further loosened the already lax security.
However, an unexpected figure soon appeared, stirring the silence of the dawn.
The dozing guards hurriedly rose to block the sudden arrival, but somehow the face was not unfamiliar.
The man who confidently ordered them to open the gate, without a single escort knight or servant, was none other than the only young master of this house, David.
He, who had entered a belated and severe rebellious phase, even daring to run away from home, had suddenly returned in the middle of the night.
“You’re back, young master! Good heavens, your face…!”
A couple of butlers who were awake quickly ran out to greet David. At the same time, they discovered his face, swollen and bruised, and were horrified, their mouths gaping open.
Even when he was beaten to a pulp by Duke Bedford, it wasn’t this bad.
“A doctor, we’ll call a doctor right away-!”
“Get out of my way!”
David roughly shoved the fussing butler away. Surprised by the unexpected action, the butler cried out, “Ouch!” and tumbled to the floor.
The sight of him collapsing as if he had been beaten by the Duke made David scowl even more.
“No one follow me. If I see even one of you, you’ll regret it!”
His already low mood soured even further as he barked a warning at the few butlers present.
The butlers were puzzled by his inexplicable anger, but they obediently lowered their heads and stepped back.
It wasn’t as if David’s strange behavior according to his mood was a new thing. He seemed particularly angry today, but it was best not to provoke him in times like these.
Thump, thump, thump! As he disappeared to the second floor with heavy footsteps, the servants hurriedly gathered and put their heads together.
“W-what should we do? The young master is heading towards Miss Lizzy’s room.”
“What do you mean, what should we do? We have to stay put. We’ll only get hurt if we interfere.”
“But you know… recently the young master…”
A new butler couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence, only moving his lips. The veteran butler guessed what he was trying to say just by looking at his expression.
It was common knowledge among most of the servants that David had been chasing after Lizzy with unusual persistence recently, and that he was showing a strange attitude towards her.
Even if they met in secret, there were eyes and ears everywhere in the mansion. Of course, there was also the tact not to show it even if they knew.
‘If we let him go to Miss Lizzy in such a distraught state, who knows what might happen.’
The butlers all had similar thoughts. However, they were afraid of the punishment they would receive if they followed and stopped him. With Duke Bedford away, there was no one who could stop David.
The best they could do as Bedford’s butlers was to pretend not to know anything and keep the servants from spreading unnecessary rumors.
